As generally understood and referred to in the art, a passenger and/or commercial vehicle, such as a van and/or a sport utility vehicle (i.e. a “SUV”), may be adapted to include multiple rows of seating to allow for the convenient transportation of multiple passengers. Such an automobile includes two or three rows of vehicle seats arranged in a series in the longitudinal direction of the automobile. A seat located in the first, foremost row may be referred to as “a front seat”. Likewise, a seat located in the second row of seating behind the first row of seating may be referred to as “a second seat”, and a seat in the third row is referred to as “a third seat”. Moreover, the second seat may be manufactured to permit an occupant of the second seat to adjust the position and/or mode of the second seat while inside the vehicle. For example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2010-149819 discloses a seat with a “walk-in mode” and a “fully tilted” mode as examples of the seat adjustments. In the walk-in mode, a seat back is maintained in a forwardly inclined position. In the fully tilted mode, the seatback overlaps a seat cushion. As a result, an occupant can easily get into and out of the third seat. Alternatively, an effective space of a vehicle interior is enlarged.
A cushion frame of the seat cushion has right and left side frames. The side frames have protruding brackets for performing adjustments to the walk-in mode and the fully tilted mode. The protruding brackets are bent in a boomerang-like fashion in the vicinity of the seat back and protrude from the seat cushion.
Instead of the walk-in mode and the fully tilted mode, the second seat may be adjusted to a tip-up mode. In the tip-up mode, the seat cushion is flipped up so as to be parallel with and/or overlap with the seatback. As in a technique disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2010-149819, the seat has a bracket 230 as shown in FIG. 7. The seat cushion of a rear seat 201 has a cushion frame 202a equipped with a substantially U-shaped front frame 210. Brackets 230 are provided at both sides of the front frame 210 in the vicinity of the seatback. The brackets 230 protrude while bent in a boomerang-like fashion.
As shown in FIGS. 8 and 9, a pad 220 containing the cushion frame 202a is formed through foaming. The size of a mold (not shown) for the pad 220 is determined so as to allow for the installation of brackets 230. This results in an increase in the size of the mold. The mold is larger than, for example, a mold for a construction in which the cushion frame has no brackets 230. The construction does not allow for an adjustment, for example, to the walk-in mode, the fully tilted mode, and the tip-up mode because the construction has no brackets 230. Continuing with that currently available, EP0386890 A1 generally discloses a vehicle seat having a seat frame, a pad integrated with the seat frame where the pad may be formed through foaming to cover the seat frame and a bracket configured to adjust a seat mode of a seat mounted within a vehicle. In detail, the bracket may be formed separately from the seat frame to be mounted to the seat frame after the foaming of the pad. Similar to that discussed above, U.S. Pat. No. 3,161,436 generally discloses a cushioning element, such as a pad, used in a vehicle seat and so on where the cushioning element has a seat frame and a pad integrated with the seat frame. In detail, the pad may be formed through foaming so as to cover the seat frame. Moreover, FR2845325 A1 discloses a vehicle seat having a seat cushion, a seatback and a bracket for rotatably connecting the seat cushion and the seatback.
Thus, there is a need for a vehicle seat which allows for adjustments inside the vehicle, as mentioned above, and which may have a pad that may be formed from a relatively small mold about a seat frame through foaming. Resultantly, the pad may integrate with and/or cover a seat frame of the seat.